


Hate is such a strong word, but only if used correctly

by Solembum



Series: The Pier [3]
Category: Marvel, X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Mutant, Alternate Universe - Normal High School, F/M, Foster Care, Some bullying, because ororo ain't gonna stand for this, because seriously that totally needed to happen, but i'm going to try not to actively flame her either, but not a whole lot, haven't decided yet, i don't like jean grey, jubilee is a good friend, mentions of others - Freeform, rogue and jubilee are best buds, rogue may need a hug, scott may need a punch, still a work in progress
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-04-07 16:11:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14084649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solembum/pseuds/Solembum
Summary: The whole idea of the club had started off as a joke. They hadn’t meant for it to become a regular thing, and they definitely hadn’t thought people would actually join in. Marie had been the founding member, and its current president, of the club back when she and Jubilee had been in eighth grade.





	1. Chapter 1

The whole idea of the club had started off as a joke. They hadn’t meant for it to become a regular thing, and they definitely hadn’t thought people would actually join in. Marie had been the founding member, and its current president, of the club back when she and Jubilee had been in eighth grade. 

 

Both had been new kids in their new suburban setting but that’s not where the two first met. They had both been taken into a new girls’ home having apparently qualified for it and given scholarships to the neighboring boarding school. As the pair were closest in age, they had been given their own room which would become the battlefield for numerous fights and arguments and eventually the hallowed ground in which they also became sisters for life. 

 

They had gotten many confused looks from others when introducing one another as such, what with Marie and her deep southern accent and frazzled auburn hair and Jubilee and her short cropped black/blue tinted hair and sometimes exaggerated cali-girl accent. Their differences didn’t matter and weren’t even noticed most days, except when it came to one thing: Marie had a crush on a boy, and of course it couldn’t have been a normal one either. 

 

Scott Summers was Xavier Institute’s golden boy; he could almost literally do no wrong. He was on every honor roll sheet, he had perfect attendance, he never had any uniform violations, he played sports, he volunteered…

To be honest, he sickened Jubilee just a bit. 

No one should be this perfect, or even be esteemed to be this perfect because it was wrong and, if she was going to be completely honest, it was creepy as hell!

“I bet he’s hiding something behind that calm caring face of his. I bet it’s like...like he tortures animals in his spare time or he actually liked ‘Borat’ or something.” Marie just rolled her eyes at her companion’s flow of gibberish. It seemed to be the main point of every lunch conversation since she finally admitted her feelings to her sister who wasn’t having any of it.

“You liked ‘Napoleon Dynamite,’ so I don’t know how you can judge if he does!” she countered aggressively dipping a fried cheesestick into some sauce. 

“I can so judge because I have an actual pulse and skin that doesn’t peel away to reveal a robotic titanium structure like 

we might know.” Jubilee countered waving her french fry around dramatically. Marie continued to ignore her friend and focused instead on attempting to finish her required reading for her English class which happened right after their lunch period. Which just so happened to be the only class she actually shared with Scott Summers, but that wasn’t really important. Marie had been ecstatic to learn she’d qualified for Honors English when joining her new school mainly because she enjoyed all the complex books and poems they were required to read and even didn’t mind some of the essays they wrote either. Plus some of her short stories were published on the school blog with some of the high schooler’s and that had to be the best feeling in the world, right next to jumping through a sprinkler on stupidly hot July day. Not that anyone besides maybe faculty and proud parents read that section of the school blog, but it was just nice to be included. 

Currently they were doing a poetry unit and were instructed to read by Edgar Allan Poe which was kind of bumming her out. She knew enough about Poe to know that the story wouldn’t be sunshine and daisies but c’mon, the guy literally kills someone because he was personally insulted, and he does it in the worst way! Ok so, there were probably worse ways of killing than chaining someone to a wall and waiting for them to either die from starvation or lack of air. Actually now that she’s actually thinking about it, there probably aren’t. Marie had literally just finished while still ignoring her sister’s imaginary, yet creative, claims of non-humanism when the bell rang signalling the end of lunch and they parted ways to class.

While Jubilee hadn’t cared enough to get into Honors English, she did care enough to get into Chemistry. Usually the science classes weren’t broken up into specific topics until they reach high school but if one tested out, they were able to go over to the high school building and take freshman Chemistry over there. Jubilee had been over the moon when she found that out, thinking she’d have to wait almost an entire year before she got the chance to use chemicals in class. Which genuinely scared almost all who knew her.

 

-

 

Class had started pretty well for Marie; they got back their pop quizzes from last week and she’d managed to get everything correct including the extra credit portion, they were told that once they finish poetry they would go on to fantasy and start as their next required reading, and then they finally got to discussing the assigned reading. Which was when it all went straight to hell. Everyone was pretty unanimous in that it was pretty shitty of Montresor to lie and kill Fortunato the way he did and many were skeptical if it had even been the right thing to do, especially since they never actually read whatever “great insult” had happened. Marie never usually piped up in class unless she was called on but one of the major arguments circling around the room was making her want to rethink her stance.

At the eye of the storm were Scott and his will-they-won’t-they “best friend” Jean Grey and they were arguing about whether or not Montresor truly felt as sorry as he portrayed in the story since, (as Jean argued), he called out for Fortunato after not hearing him or his bells and even at the end of the story said “may he rest in peace” was all major points of his guilt. Scott countered that if the man truly felt sorry he should’ve removed the wall and saved the other man instead of leaving him to die. Personally Marie agreed with Scott but she was trying to stay far away from this as humanly possible. Whenever Scott and Jean got into it, they seemed to want to pull as many other people in as a way of almost showing off how wrong the other person is but really all it did was make everyone feel really awkward and the two “friends” to wallow in their UST for a few days before it disappeared and they go back to acting like nothing ever happened. Marie sat in a middle seat right by the door while Scott, Jean, and the rest of the smart, popular, and just plainly unfair sat towards the front by the professor who was struggling to contain the two.

“You just want to believe that the world is in black and white and that no one can change!”

“What I believe isn’t important, it’s about facts and the facts state that he believed he was in the right and left him to die and that no amount of supposed guilt will change that!”

Back and forth the two went pulling and pushing others into their madness until it finally reached Marie.

“Marie! Tell Scott that the ending of the story is left rather open ended concluding that Montresor has been telling this story as a way to absolve himself of his guilt because he’s grown and changed and wants to atone for his crimes.” 

Marie jumped with a start at hearing her name come from Jean, she might’ve been more surprised that the taller girl even knew her name before realizing that she and everyone else in the room was now staring at her. And by everyone else she mainly just meant Scott. She opened and closed her mouth a few times struggling with the right words to say when the decision is taken away from her. 

“Why are you even bringing her in the middle of this? You just don’t want to admit that I’m right!”

Jean huffed and flipped her long red hair over her shoulder and fixing Scott with a steely glare. “I can admit that you have a point which is basically no better than an OPINION and if you’re as smart as you keep bragging then you’ll know that with having an opinion there is not ‘right’ or ‘wrong.’ Now, will you kindly stop trying to keep her from answering, or do you want to finally admit that I have a point?”

They went straight back to arguing neither giving Marie that chance or option to say her own piece until the bell rang and the professor gave an actual sigh of relief before all but shoving them out of the classroom. Scott and Jean were still fuming and now refusing to talk to one another but both for some reason had decided to level Marie with a sharp look which greatly confused her because she hadn’t even done anything! When she retold the story to Jubilee on their walk back to the home, her sister had merely shrugged before proclaiming that both teens definitely had major issues they needed to work out and that it definitely had nothing to do with her. “Maybe Jean knows his terrible robotic secret and is blackmailing him about it!” she exclaimed causing the Southern girl to groan the ludicrous conspiracy theory.

 

-

 

The excitement of that argument was pushed to the back of Marie’s mind and forgotten as they concluded poetry and went on to reading the fabled hobbit adventures and writing short stories. Throughout the course of the unit she couldn’t help but sometimes get a sudden shiver as if someone were watching her and on even rarer occasions would look up to see that someone actually was. On those days they would quickly turn back around but would start snickering to themselves or to others which confused and worried her a bit.

At her last school she’d been the perfect target for bullies coming from a poor household, always having dirty or torn clothing, and never speaking up for herself but after getting placed in the girl’s home and starting school nothing like that had been happening here. It wasn’t exactly hidden that she and about a quarter of the school were here on scholarship alone or that she and quite a few others were living in a foster care situation. There was a sixth grader from Germany living with his foster family who was still learning English and flinched at loud noises and no one gave him any trouble. If anything he was babied by nearly everyone he met including the staff. Even Jubilee who said she had the maternal instinct of a tiger shark said she found the kid “strangely adorable.” Still, all the looks and snickering put her on edge but she was in a much better place now so if they thought she’d roll over without a fight then they had another thing coming!

The day finally came roughly a week before winter break when they were turning in the last of their assignments and generally just being unproductive when another argument broke out, of course between Scott and Jean, after the professor had walked out the room to run an errand. This time it seemed to reach Marie much faster than the last time. Of course, this time she hadn’t even been paying attention and was only brought to by the second calling of her name and looked to see that she was once again the center of attention. But this time she wasn’t interrupted by the pair actually arguing.

“Why’d you ask her? All she’s gonna do is agree Scott says!”

Marie’s mouth dropped open and she wasn’t sure if her face was burning from embarrassment or plain fury.

“Where’d you get a stupid idea like that?! I don’t even know what they’re arguing about, why would I just agree with him?!” she loudly defended herself while one of the girls up near Jean guffawed.

“Uh, because you have some sort of obsession with him? We read your short story. About the boy who could see everything and how you were the only one who understood him?  Like, my god, how self deluded are you?” Everyone began laughing in the class while Marie’s heart thundered and broke inside her chest at the realization that not only had everyone in class read her short story, but Scott had as well. And he was 

Every imaginary comeback vanished from her mind and all she could do was sink in her chair and ignore all the commentary thrown her way. Any argument she could’ve made about her story stayed locked inside as Marie had to stop herself from becoming sick because she was sure she would just vomit her broken heart. When the bell rang she was out the door quicker than she’d ever been and practically flew halfway across campus and only when she had found Jubilee and was in her sister’s arms did she allow herself to cry.

And so when over winter break when her sister jokingly proposed that they create a hate group towards the people in her English class, more specifically at Scott Summers, Marie didn’t hesitate to print off the requisite paperwork from the school website and help fill it out.

The “We Hate Scott Summers” club, aka “We Hate Size Shamers” was formally approved January fourth with Anna Marie Smith as acting president and treasurer and Jubilation Lee as vice president and secretary. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Years passed and yet some things stay the same

Marie woke with a shout nearly falling out of her bed looking around wildly for whatever it was that woke her from her sleep. She groaned when she heard another pop, bang, and loud laughter from her next door neighbors barely resisting banging on the wall (she’d learned her lesson after nearly breaking her knuckle) before groaning louder than before and just getting up. She walked out into the small hallway separating hers and Jubiliee’s bedroom and didn’t even bother knocking on the other girl’s door before going in and groggily slipping into the occupied bed. Jubilee murmured something in her sleep and absentmindedly made enough room for her sister and both fell back asleep.

The next morning as they were both getting ready for the day, the pixie cut young woman complained loudly and expressively about how this was way beyond a problem.

“I mean, we pay the same damn rent, the same damn insurance, the same damn utilities fees as those fuckers and yet we’re the ones who have to deal with this bullshit?! And don’t even get me started on how their noise complaints miraculously disappear one after the other, it’s like my God, could they be even more up their asses?!” Marie navigated their kitchen expertly brewing coffee and slicing fruit for a parfait while her sister slammed cabinet and pantry doors as she poured herself a bowl of cereal.

“It’s like we’re right back in high school again! Only instead of them ruling the student council to ruin our lives, they’re just straight up ruining our lives!” the artist groused angrily taking a bite of her meal while her sister snorted. 

“If you think I’m going to let a few loud parties are going to ruin my life, we need to have a talk on how pathetic you think it actually is first.” Marie teased popping a blueberry into her mouth before putting the rest back in the fridge. 

“Pretty pathetic actually if we’re being honest. Who was the last guy you went on a date with again? Buddy something?” Jubilee talked with her mouth half full drawing a gag from her friend.

“Bobby goddammit, you were the one who set us up!”

“All I knew was that he read the same depressing ass shit you do and he had a decent looking ass, names weren’t really that important to me.” Marie sighed loudly as she took yogurt covered bite of her parfait. “He was nice, we do have a lot in common, and we text.”

“Soo…?”

“He’s also gay as the day is long.” Jubilee snorted nearly spraying milk out her nose.

“No way!”

“Well maybe not gay, but bisexual at the very least.”

“How’d you know?! Did he like, look at other guys while you were on your date?” Marie shook her head. 

“No nothing like that! It was when we were discussing the latest book in a series we’re into. He identified more with this side character than he did with the protagonist which was definitely telling.” the redhead took another bite of her food while her sister looked on in confusion. 

“I’ve liked plenty of side characters and I’m still pretty sure I prefer dick.”

“The side character’s main storyline that doesn’t involve the protag is how he’s going to leave his wife after falling in love with his very male coworker.”

“Yikes.”

“Yeah. Great guy though, I’m sure he’ll find someone better suited for him. Like you said, you could bounce a quarter off that ass.”

“ _ Right?! _ ”

* * *

Becoming a child advocate had been a rather easy decision once Marie really sat down with her job counselor and thought about it. She had graduate early with her bachelors of science in psychology with a minor in social work and then went on to get a master’s specializing in children’s mental health and considered working as an actual school guidance counselor when her mother mentioned being an advocate. Ororo had volunteered as an advocate which lead her to eventually becoming a foster parent and while Marie wasn’t thinking that far ahead, she did like the idea of helping kids like her find out that there’s always something better in the world. So for her final in graduate school, she volunteered as an advocate and on the eve of her graduate she accepted the job as counselor at the local city chapter helping to pair children with appropriate advocates as well as counsel those that needed it. 

Today she had three needed to be paired and one of her regulars, a girl whose mother would abandon her at the drop of a hat to go off with her new beau and then come slinking back home once the men tired of her. Seline was finally taken away and placed in foster care because she called the police while locked in a closet so that her mother’s newest man wouldn’t come slinking into her bed like the ones before. To date she wasn’t Marie’s worst case, from the untameable mane of dark curly hair and sad hazel green eyes staring back at her behind new glasses (the home she was placed with discovered she had an astigmatism after her initial check-up), but something about her struck a chord within her that had her going beyond the normal call of a counselor. There were day trips to frozen yogurt shops asking about her home if school was going alright, there were random surprise gifts of small trinkets like maybe a new bookmark or a kitty flashlight keychain she saw that she knew she’d like. It’s not to say she never did small things for all the kids on her docket, but with Seline it was different. Which was why she knew something was wrong the moment she saw her waiting by her office way too early for her appointment. 

“Unless you’ve somehow managed to bend time to your will, it’s only eight thirty and you’re appointment with me isn’t until four. More importantly, today’s a school day and class for you starts oh, ten minutes ago.” Marie stated unlocking her door and opening it for the young teen to slip inside. 

“I know, but this is important and if I couldn’t come now it would’ve been too late.” Seline explained throwing her backpack into an armchair and began rooting around inside it. The counselor just watched in growing confusion as the girl pulled a packet out and laid it on her desk. Looking at it, she saw that it was an application to the Xavier Institute and that specifically she was looking at a request for a letter of recommendation.

“This is, wow, I didn’t even know you were thinking of applying! You spent thirty minutes telling me about some kid named after a Flintstone but you couldn’t manage five seconds to tell me you were applying to private school?”

“First of all, Bambam is just a nickname and he’s great ok and everyone needs to understand that. Second of all, it was kinda spur of the moment? They had applications all over the place at school and Mr. Wagner kept dropping hints about how he knew I could get in if I just tried and even said he’d write one of my recommendation letters if I even wrote my name on the thing but. Idunno. I just wasn’t interested until now.” Seline tried to avoid looking at Marie’s stare which pretty much told her all she needed to know.

“Uh huh. So what exactly changed your interest?” A small scowl went across the girl’s face before she smoothed it into a neutral facade. “Someone overheard Mr. Wagner’s offer and made it sound like he was doing it out of pity, like I really couldn’t get in if I tried. So screw her, I’m gonna apply, get in, rub it in her face and then rip the acceptance letter right in front of her!” Marie looked at her visibly stunned. “You wouldn’t go if they offered you a place?! That’s ridiculous! Why would you tear up an acceptance to Xavier’s?! You could get into any college, any program, any job if you have that school on your resume!” Seline snorted and gave her counselor a long look. 

“I’m a brown foster kid who maybe has all of twelve cents to her name. C’mon, I’m not Xavier material. You understand me, right?” 

Marie was about five seconds away from throttling the girl before she just sighed and went over to her filing cabinet and grabbed one of the bigger picture frames from atop it. 

“That’s me and my sister graduating from Xavier’s, both of us with honors and both of us having come from a foster home. I may not be brown, but I have what was called a ‘low brow’ accent and got accepted there with nothing but the clothes on my back. Anything else I don’t understand?” Seline gaped as she listened to the story and held the photo in her hands. “You never told me you went to Xavier’s!”

“You never asked.”

“That’s something you should be bragging about! The lady down the hall won’t shut up about going to her uppity Hogwarts boarding school but you don’t mention Xavier’s?!” Marie shrugged.

“It was a long time ago. And as contrary as this sounds, it’s just a school. A good school that opened a lot of doors for me that I never would’ve even found let alone reach had I not gone there, but still. I’m going to write you this letter of recommendation and then I’m going to make sure you send it in and even pay the application fee. That’s how much faith I have in you getting in.” 

Seline looked surprise and opened her mouth to probably tell her that was too much but stopped seeing the look of determination on Marie’s face, knowing it was a lost cause right out the gate. So she sighed and tried to look annoyed but couldn’t hide the small happy grin and blush that made its way across her young face. “I guess that’ll work.”

“It damn well better. Now grab your shit, I’m taking you to school.”

“If Mr. Wagner heard you cursing I think he might actually faint.”

“Don’t sound too hopeful, I’m only dropping you off at the front gate.”

“Damn.”

* * *

Unfortunately for Marie, students being dropped off late had to be physically signed into the school which meant she had to park and actually walk Seline into the building and be lead to the front office. Where she ran into Mr. Wagner who promptly gushed when he found out who she was (apparently Seline talked enough about her that he could recognize her from the red hair alone much to the teen’s mortification) and actually literally squealed when he found out she was also writing a letter of recommendation. After signing the teen in and talked into joining the German teacher for quiz night at the local bar (her sister did say she needed to get out more), Marie left the school to finally get the rest of her day on track. That night, she went home to change into more evening appropriate wear making sure to text Jubilee that she’d be home late and why and getting accompanying text messages proclaiming her a nerd while also instructing her to find a hot piece of tail. Actually that wasn’t her exact words but she certainly got the jist of it. Dressed simply in black jeans, a white tank top with a dark leather jacket and red wedge heeled boots, she merely took her hair out of its usual ponytail and let it hang down to frame her face and called it “good as it’s gonna get.” 

She used the navigation on her phone to find the bar Kurt had mentioned and was apparently one of the last to show up to which made things slightly awkward but the genuine excitement and good cheer helped ease her anxiety. She met a young woman named Kitty who was still in grad school for microbiology and a surprising talent at making shadow puppets, an older gentleman named Hank who greatly reminded her of a history professor from her school who could apparently recite the Magna Carta in its entirety after downing three appletinis, Kurt who moved to the US as part of a cultural exchange program and just decided to stay and get his citizenship that had absolutely nothing to do with the girl he fell in love with and later married. Which of course had Marie cooing over much to the man’s embarrassment but it didn’t stop him from talking about her at any given time. The only people she hadn’t met yet were running late but she was assured she’d absolutely love them. At the five minute warning mark that quiz night would start soon and that hurricanes were also half off, Marie wondered if she’d really meet the elusive two while also considered her morning health if she went with that hurricane idea. 

“We’re here! Sorry we’re late, we couldn’t find any good parking spot near until the last minute.” a female voice rang out causing Marie to turn and see the two people she hadn’t thought about since her high school graduation. Scott Summers Jean Grey (or was it Summers now?) were standing in front of the table looking at her like they’d seen a ghost and really, she couldn’t decide between cackling or acting like she didn’t recognize them. So she did the next best thing and ordered herself that hurricane in the largest size available because God knows she was going to need it to survive this night. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I have no idea what I'm doing! Please bare with the sudden shift and hope to god like me that this story will end next chapter!


End file.
